Is there actually anything you can do to lessen the effects of heightened sense of smell?

[Amby99]

My sense of smell has always been top notch even before I was pregnant. Now I think I could work for TSA!

I can’t stand the smell of our clothes powder so all my clothes I can’t stand after washing them and even hugging my partner is too much because I can smell the detergent. Before the clothes just smelt great but now I hate it.

There is a horrid smell on our driveway / garden… I’m not sure if it’s grass but early in the morning it just stinks and I instantly heave.

My mother made a chicken pie (which I usually love and love the smell of) but when I smelt it I felt like throwing up - just horrible.

is there anything I can do to bear these daily smells more? I have a candle I used to love the smell of in our bedroom but I don’t love it anymore - it just smells too much. Everything just smells ‘ too much’

my nausea is quite bad when I get hungry which is manageable but the actual heaving is if I get a whiff of something strong…

anyway I know this all apart of it and I’m grateful to be going through it but I’m curious to learn how other people cope through it

I’ve heard of people putting a bit of Vaseline in their nostrils to help deflect strong smells.

I have a poor sense of smell, which was heightened to normal during pregnancy, and I was pretty glad when it went back to poor - the world is very smelly! Sympathies 🌸💓

Could you put some Vicks or similar (or strong mint lip balm) under your nose in anticipation of the smells you know are coming? Won't help all the time of course.

I had to just breathe through my mouth when frying meat for example 😆

Not really a solution, but after covid I was never able to smell things the same again.I had a fantastic sense of smell before.Catch covid?

I think a water-based cream is safer though 👍

Completely sympathise - like you I have always had a very good sense of smell but the first trimester turned it into something else! It’s like having a really rubbish superpower. The fridge suddenly smelled disgusting, I could smell it from any room in the house if my husband opened it, and all supermarkets were just overpoweringly awful.

I never really found a way to mitigate it, other than just avoiding the worst things as much as possible. Maybe chewing gum (if you can stand it) or carrying around something in a pouch with a tolerable smell, like lavender or mint?

I found that around week 14, it all went away. It was the oddest thing, woke up one morning and suddenly the fridge had no smell again. Aside from how gross the whole thing was it was also fascinating, the power of our bodies!

Exactly this - so fascinating and it really is like a bad super power that’s for sure! A girl sat next to me on the train yesterday and was eating GARLIC prawns straight out M&S packet…which isn’t a great smell at the best of times but you can imagine how much effort I went to to conceal my heaving so I didn’t offend!

@Amby99 omg garlic prawns! 🤢 Well done for being politer than I would have been!

I once had to take a long taxi ride when 7 weeks pregnant, and the driver was very nice but had a dreadful smell. Fortunately I happened to have a peppermint teabag in my pocket and so I spent most of the journey holding that under my nose (I was sitting behind him and he couldn't see me). It's probably not a longer term solution but I think it wears off after a few weeks?

I used to carry around some lavender or lemon oils (the small reflexology bottles). It really helped me! Lemon especially